Jen Wood

“This album is about finding the light inside the darkest places of my mind and my past” says Seattle-based singer/songwriter Jen Wood of her record Finds You In Love. Trust, unconditional love and forgiveness are some of the themes that run through the record.
Over three years in the making, Finds You In Love is Wood’s most accomplished release to date. It’s also the most personal, but yet is still the most optimistic. “When I first started out as a musician, with Tattle Tale, I was 15 at the time, and a lot of the songs captured the angst I was feeling. With Finds You In Love, I wanted to explore a different facet of my personality – one that was not so bleak.”
Working closely together with her band that includes members of some of the most respected and accomplished bands in Seattle, Wood’s band includes Tomo Nakayama of Grand Hallway, Joel Harmon of Sleepy Eyes of Death and Wolf Carr of Wesafari. Of her band, Wood says, “I’ve been playing music with Joel and Tomo since 2002; and there has not been one day where I felt truly blessed and lucky to have them be a part of my music and my life. They are two of the most gifted and intuitive musicians I’ve ever known, and they are like family to me. I’ve known Wolf since he was 12. He is an amazing bassist and a trained vocalist (and voice instructor).” She adds, “What makes my bandmates so amazing is that I don’t ever have to tell them what to play. Every melody they create is on their own and is perfect and well crafted between the three of them. I show up with a new song and I pitch it to them. I then let them decide how they feel about it, and whether or not to keep it. They help me find the diamonds in the haystacks of songs that I’m always writing”
Finds was helmed by producer/engineer Shawn Simmons, who has worked with such diverse artists as Brandi Carlile, Tim Seely, and SUNN O))). “I knew Shawn was the person I wanted for this record because of the work ethic he showed in getting the absolute best recordings from me and my bandmates. He really pushed each of us to 200%. I have never worked with a producer so dedicated to a project as he was to this” says Wood. On the recording process, Tomo Nakayama adds, “When it came time to do overdubs, Jen was open minded enough to let us try anything we wanted, from any angle, and that kept the process fresh and vital. ‘People Like Us’, for example, has the sound of Joel and I knocking on a chair, and the huge choir sound at the end was also something that happened very spontaneously…With so much freedom, however, there was also a fair amount of arguing between the four of us, and Shawn was the perfect arbitrator. He was incredibly patient, but also very firm and convincing when he felt an idea worked or did not work. He also came up with some brilliant atmospheric parts of his own (the eerie, ghostlike middle section of ‘You Are The Promise,’ for example) that really served the songs well, and tied our different ideas together.”
Known for her delicate and gorgeous voice, Wood has appeared on some very high profile releases including singing on the Postal Service’s landmark 2002 album Give Up, singing the duet “Nothing Better” with Benjamin Gibbard as well as providing the backing harmonies for the single “Such Great Heights”. She also has appeared on recordings by artists such as Jeremy Enigk, Black Heart Procession and Joan of Arc. She has also played guitar as a member of the popular indie rock band Aveo.
Several years in the making, Finds You In Love is the perfect storm that results from a gifted singer-songwriter writing the best songs of her career, a dynamic band and the right producer working together and trusting one another to create such a powerful and special album.
- Chris Burlingame, June 2008